Theory predicts that tighter correlation between floral traits and weaker relationship between floral and vegetative traits more likely occur in specialized flowers than generalized flowers, favoring by precise fit with pollinators. However, traits and trait correlations frequently vary under different environments. Through detecting spatiotemporal variation in phenotypic traits (floral organ s...

The transition from vegetative to reproductive growth in woody perennials involves pathways controlling flowering timing, bud dormancy and outgrowth in responses to seasonal cues. However little is known about the mechanism governing the adaptation of signaling pathways to environmental conditions in trees. Camellia azalea is a rare species in this genus flowering during summer, which provides ...

Evolutionary biologists seek to understand the genetic basis for multivariate phenotypic divergence. We constructed an F2 mapping population (N = 539) between two distinct populations of Mimulus guttatus. We measured 20 floral, vegetative, and life-history characters on parents and F1 and F2 hybrids in a common garden experiment. We employed multitrait composite interval mapping to determine th...

Perennial woodland herbs in the genus Thalictrum exhibit high diversity of floral morphology, including four breeding and two pollination systems. Their phylogenetic position, in the early-diverging eudicots, makes them especially suitable for exploring the evolution of floral traits and the fate of gene paralogs that may have shaped the radiation of the eudicots. A current limitation in evolut...

Angiosperm flowers are usually determinate structures that may produce seeds. In some species, flowers can revert from committed flower development back to an earlier developmental phase in a process called floral reversion. The allopolyploid Arabidopsis suecica displays photoperiod-dependent floral reversion in a subset of its flowers, yet little is known about the environmental conditions enh...

In Arabidopsis, the population of stem cells present in young flower buds is lost after the production of a fixed number of floral organs. The precisely timed repression of the stem cell identity gene WUSCHEL (WUS) by the floral homeotic protein AGAMOUS (AG) is a key part of this process. In this study, we report on the identification of a novel input into the process of floral stem cell regula...

Information on floral resource costs is fundamental for understanding how selection operates on floral morphology. In this study, I explored the cost of maturing flowers in a self-incompatible population of the ligulate composite Crepis tectorum L. by experimentally manipulating floral investment and then monitoring the response in reproductive effort. Plants on which the heads were removed dur...

calendula officinalis (family compositae) flowers are recognized as safe substance for food use by food and drug administration. present study was aimed to determine the modulatory effect of floral extracts of c. officinalis administrations on mean blood glucose (mbg), per cent glycosylated hemoglobin (hba1c), lipid profile [(total cholesterol (tc), triglycerides (tg), low and high density lipo...

MADS box genes play important roles in specifying floral meristem and floral organ identity. We characterized the temporal and spatial expression patterns of two members of this gene family, AGL4 and AGL5 (for AGAMOUS [AG]-like). AGL4 RNA initially accumulates after the onset of expression of the floral meristem identity genes but before the onset of expression of the floral organ identity gene...

Traditionally, plant-pollinator interactions have been interpreted as pollination syndrome. However, the validity of pollination syndrome has been widely doubted in modern studies of pollination ecology. The pollination ecology of five Asian Buddleja species, B. asiatica, B. crispa, B. forrestii, B. macrostachya and B. myriantha, in the Sino-Himalayan region in Asia, flowering in different loca...